What is Product Placement?

Product placement in movies is a method of communication for companies and brands and a strategy for the production company, which will be paid for it.

The principle is to integrate products or brands in one or many scenes. The product could be also placed in the credits, or in the trailers.

The main stakes are to give credibility by integrating real products/brands in a movie and contribute to its plot. On the other hand, product placement contracts are a sizeable source of financing. We’ll discuss later the different stakes for both the production company and the brands.
The product placement is also called “Branded Entertainment”. It refers to the experiential consumption with the product and brand placement.

There are three types of placement:

the visual,

the oral,

a mix of both.

It is also called :

visual placement,

oral placement,

hands on placement.

The type of placement could be the insertion of a logo, a name of brand, a product, or a packaging.

Product placement is now a complementary source of notoriety for the brands. It is an element of the marketing mix and it could create a huge impact.

There are four different types of placement.

The classic placement: it is a simple tactical practice. The brand/product appears in the field of vision but it can be unnoticed.

The institutional placement privileges the brand (logo, brand name). However the audience has to know the brand otherwise it can be unnoticed.

The evocative placement: when the brand is not seen, the product has to be original with a distinctive design to be recognized, however, it could be unnoticed. It suggests a real differentiation from its competitors.

The furtive placement: when the product is perfectly integrated in the story, but, because of its real integration, it can be completely unnoticed.